The Seattle Hebrew Academy is a private Kindergarten–grade 8 school, located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

History

The school was established in 1947 as the "Seattle Hebrew Day School" to integrate Jewish and secular studies following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and in the following year, it and the Seattle

Talmud Torah Talmud Torah ( he, תלמוד תורה, lit. 'Study of the Torah') schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of religious school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary educ ...

consolidated. The school changed its name in 1969 to "Seattle Hebrew Academy", to reflect the addition of a childhood center. The school is located in a space formerly occupied by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and the old Forest Ridge, since 1973 when the building was purchased by the school administration. The Academy building took extensive damage and was deemed unsafe following the Nisqually Quake in March, 2001. The school had temporary campuses during the retrofit and rebuild period. They were first housed in Mercer Island's Herzl Ner Tamid for the remainder of the 2001 school year. The Seattle Hebrew Academy built temporary classrooms in the parking lot of Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath for the lower school while the middle school was housed in portables in the upper field on the Seattle Hebrew Academy's campus. The school board raised money for renovations, totalling $8 million over the course of three years. The Academy reopened on their Capitol Hill campus in Autumn 2004. In 2006, the Academy hired

Rivy Poupko Kletenik Rivy Poupko Kletenik is an American lecturer and educator. Career Poupko Kletenik is Head of School at the Seattle Hebrew Academy and wrote a monthly Jewish advice column called JQ for Seattle's ''The Jewish Sound''. She was the recipient of ...

as their head of school. She was the first woman head of school in the school's history. She served for 16 years, tied for the longest serving Head of School with the first head
Rabbi Samuel Gruadenz
In 2022, Rabbi Benjy Owen became the first Sephardic head of school. The school is accredited through Northwest Association for Independent Schools
NWAIS

References

External links

Seattle Hebrew Academy
1969 establishments in Washington (state) Educational institutions established in 1969 Jewish day schools in Washington (state) Jews and Judaism in Seattle Middle schools in Seattle Private elementary schools in Washington (state) Private middle schools in Washington (state) Landmarks in Seattle {{Washington-school-stub